Tag: Italy

The relative irregularity with which international teams meet can throw up some curious statistical anomalies, and one of the most curious of all is that Germany – or West Germany – have never beaten Italy in a competitive match. The two teams meet tomorrow evening in Munich, and this will be the thirty-third meeting of the two sides, and of the previous thirty-two Italy have won fifteen, drawn ten and lost seven, with all of (West) Germany’s wins having come in friendlies, and with the last of these dating all the way back to a match played in Zurich...

Italy join the likes of Spain and England on their way home from the 2014 World Cup finals today. This, of course, should be the story of the final round of matches from Group D of this most extraordinary of tournaments this morning, but yet again this morning’s newspaper headlines have been written by one Luis Suarez, who, for the third time in his career, has been caught red-handed biting another player on a football pitch. If a wise man once said that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes, then Suarez is not...

As with both of yesterday’s group finales, this afternoon’s pair of matches feature three teams battling over the two qualification spots and one useless team who are already out. In Group D, the useless team are of course England, a source of great pride for everyone back at home. However, the World Cup is always better for getting rid of the chaff and besides, a much-changed England team can still affect today’s action even if it isn’t in their own favour. Their opponents, Costa Rica, are already through to the knockout stages for only the second time in their history,...

In the first place, there was a common acceptance in England that defeat at the hands of Uruguay on Thursday night equalled a de facto elimination from the World Cup finals for England, but over the following twelve hours, a new narrative started to be written. Ignoring the evidence of their own eyes from last weekend, some journalists attempted to persuade us that Costa Rica might be terrible after all and that Italy would lay them to waste and put England right back into contention in time for the final found of group matches in Brazil. By seven o’clock...

Group D’s second round of matches draws to a close with this encounter, between the two leaders. Before last night, you might have suggested that Italy – who saw off a talented England side in their first game – would very much have the edge against Costa Rica – who rallied to beat a very sub-par Uruguay. But now, who knows? Maybe it’s Italy who should be entering into this game feeling all the trepidation. The only other possibility is that Uruguay were rotten in their first match and much better in the second while England did it in...